A culture blog.

Month: July 2018

Summer blockbusters are by no means a dying breed; if anything, the weight of action dross is ever-growing. Yet quality products are starting to feel rare. With his latest Mission: Impossible film Tom Cruise sprints full-bore into that welcoming niche. This is a spy caper par excellence, stunting its way through cynical hangups. Cruise returns … Continue reading Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Sometimes you simply have to go along with the ride. Mamma Mia! was critically reviled upon its release in 2008, yet stormed the UK box office in outlandish fashion. It still sits a hair outside the all-time British top 10, so a follow-up effort is far from surprising commercially. Here We Go Again is in … Continue reading Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

It can be difficult, on a nostalgic and intuitive level, to criticise Pixar for their attitude to franchises they created and realised with generally breath-taking skill and wit. Yet watching Incredibles 2, despite moments of visual excellence and lacerating irony, one can conclude that they simply don’t know best. This is not a bad film; … Continue reading Incredibles 2

With a somewhat refreshing simplicity at its core and a generously quick pace, Skyscraper is as big and stupid as its titular building, and similarly just about avoids major disaster. The Rock’s box office pull has seemed undeniable in recent months, propping up the mediocre Jumanji and Rampage. In Skyscraper he is Will Sawyer, retired hostage rescuer and family man. In a … Continue reading Skyscraper

David Cage’s reputation is a slippery thing; industry punching bag, egotistical oddity, potential visionary – all these labels swirl around him depending on the audience. His latest game, Detroit: Become Human has been welcomed as his most well-rounded and playable yet. His previous, Beyond: Two Souls, is a hot mess. Cage is clear in his … Continue reading Beyond: Two Souls

Gameplay excellence and narrative madness have been comfortable bedfellows for videogames over the decades. As the form found its feet, expectations of competent storytelling grew only slowly, and are still remarkably forgiving. Bayonetta and its sequel, re-released this year for Nintendo’s Switch, exemplify this divide. Their combo-chaining fighting gameplay is responsive and accessible, scaling to … Continue reading Bayonetta & Bayonetta 2

The ending of 2015’s taut, stressful Sicario did not make a clear play for sequels. Operations were completed, lines were crossed and the US’s border policy was thoroughly problematised. Yet in 2018, with that policy once again forcefully disputed, Sicario 2: Soldado slinks into play, offering another look at just how grim things can get on the Texan threshold. … Continue reading Sicario 2: Soldado

Greeted in some quarters as the second coming of the horror genre, Hereditary is a largely taut, occasionally glib chiller. Its insistence on suspense over and above shock is a refreshing, classical tactic that pays off well. After the death of her aged mother, Toni Collette's Annie is struggling to hold her family together. Her career as … Continue reading Hereditary